Had some time Saturday for one of my favorite short mountain hikes - up Limestone Cove Trail and Stamping Ground Ridge to Unaka Mountain. This wilderness hike (Unaka Mountain Wilderness) is only about 8 miles round trip, but quite a bit of climbing with all the elevation change.

There was less than a half inch of snow near the base of the mountain, just enough to make things look pretty...

The snow made for some pretty good tracking. We did not see any other human tracks, but did see several sets of Black Bear tracks. Black Bears are not true hibernators, sometimes they wake up hungry and prowl around a bit during the winter.

First shot is a single track. 2nd shot is another from the same bear, with my track and one of my dog's tracks nearby, to show something of the size of the bear track.

We had planned to go on to Horseback Ridge, and maybe even on to Beauty Spot for some even better views. But the old road on the top was deeply snow covered, and the ice crust made for some very slow going. So we decided to head on back down, and avoid hiking in the dark!!